The bus stop project investigated the idea of peeling and pucturing an urban landscape.
The project was a short investigation that was explored through the sketch both on paper
and through model making. The industrial site gave provided a palatte of materials along
with the old train tracks that were paved over yet still revealing within the street. Using
these few raws materials and a simple expression of the peel and puncture, the bus stop
terminal was formed allowing for seating and an overhead cover.

Land art uses the change of the landscape to create an atmosphere that is atypical in that
setting. This project expands on this idea by converging land art and architecture. The project
becomes a landscape that uses the grid as a universal condition and then takes that grid and
finds new opportunities. The condition above the grid, the condition below the grid and
how that grid may relate to a building as a reflective surface. In each condition new spacial
possibilities are able to be explored and exploited in relation to the landscape around them.

LOCATION
Omaha, Nebraska
PROGRAM
University of Nebraska-Medical Center,
College of Public Health
Research Facility
Classrooms
Offices

The design for the Houston Museum of
Art and Design begun with exercises in
diagramming of Alvar Aaltoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Saynatsalo
Town Hall, extracting from the past. The
diagram was described as a static condition
within a dynamic movement that affected
the landscape that it positioned. I than
took this idea using the initial structure of
the formal white box, as a reaction of the
modern context of Houston, and melt it as
you move across the space. This condition
also creates a new environment, much like
a renovation/addition to a pre-existing
condition the building uses two different
formal languages. As a user would experience
this project they would first encounter the
liquefied forms moving through them to find
the framed glass box of downtown Houston.
The frame with no direct opening between
it and the city serves only as a display of the
modern city. The figural space is engaged as
a user moves through the space, the modern
city can only be seen in the distance.

As the diagram was reconfigured, it was
transformed into three-dimensional models.
Each iteration was an attempt using the
same concept of an initial box with growth
coming off the box. The framed box being a
constant, with a fluid system that is anchored
from its general condition. The first box was

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

mapped on a face with intersecting lines that
were the guides to the fluid growth from
the system. The second box was a series
of distorted boxes that transitioned to be
more extreme versions while penetrating the
original, as the distorted box became more
corrupted the constant boxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interior integrity.

Section B
Each corner has an unique condition that
is a result of the study of the diagrams. The
building is encountered first from the smooth
surfaces. This first welcomes the visitors as
they move underneath these free following
tubes. These sinuous forms wrap themselves
around each other as they turn the corner.

The corner appears to be a folding of the
forms as they are condensed. The curved
forms are engaged with the glass box, pulling
it away from its static condition. As the
movement along the glass facade progresses
the box normalizes squaring itself off.

Through the figure

Through the box

The figure is a new form, unfamiliar to the
context. It sleek, its droops, it moves, it stops.
The figure is used to move people through,
and invite them in. The first encounter that
any visitor has is with a massive geometry
that acts more like a sculpture itself, it is
the first piece of art. But unlike one that
would be found inside this serves a purpose
of enclosure, it welcomes engagement and
violation. Once surrounded by the forms
the smooth forms guide through their
aggregation. The illusion of what could
be inside is up to the imagination of the
individual, only small fenestrations reveal
any interior identity of these spaces. Lifting
themselves up so that the box can be
entered. Once entered the glass box frames
the city, downtown Houston is on display.

The box begins its origin as a frame. The
frame gives a perspective of the city. But
turning itself around the once surrounding,
encapsulating tubes, now are displayed
through the glass plane. The extreme
curvature reveals an intense level of
fenestration suggesting the identity of the
spaces inside, as well as better describing
the composition of the surfaces. The glass
plane, along with much of the glass box is the
origin for surfaces. The box is manipulated
and begins to contort itself. The melted
formal language creates openings that are
the entries into the main galleries. The
display of both the permanent and temporary
exhibits rest inside the tubes. The frame
guides the visitor towards the opening
inviting them to discover what lies beyond.

The glass box has been deformed and
invaded by the sinuous geometry, engaging
its strict formal state. The curved geometry
is composed of a double membrane skin of
each that reveals itself when entering the
glass box. It sheds the outer layer, revealing
the colored interstitial space between the
membranes. Aperture is gridded along the
surface, numbering higher within the most
extreme double curved grid units. From
the outside the sinuous geometry appears to
intrude the space, but revealed within the box

the geometry origins start within the formal
geometry. They stretch and bend around the
site turning corners capturing a courtyard,
smothering one another as they compete to
move away from the origin. The fluid system
leaves inside a space that forces movement,
unbalance. Inside, extremes can flow in and
out of one another, high intensity both within
the architecture and the art are only held at
a moment. This moment fleets as the space
influences unrest, users move freely as they
are loosely guided from exhibit to exhibit.

STITCH

connection to arrogation of the first street bridge
Fall 2010
In this project was focused on the manipulation of program elements and the reaction of the
interiority and the object. This project used the familiar of each of the program elements,
and began to blend through formal manipulation. The manipulation was based on the site
condition change, as the building began to climb and then take over the bridge the spatial
relationship had significant changes. The goal of this was to create a sense of place wherever
within the building as well as making a promenade. The integration of vehicular, pedestrian
traffic, and the programmatic space twisting around each other drawing the users eye to
wonder yet each having a unique experience.
LOCATION
1st Street Bridge, Austin, Texas
PROGRAM
retain vehicular traffic
Integration of:
pedestrian traffic
office space
residential units
retail development

building

pedestrian circulation

vehicular circulation

office surface

residential surface

First Street Bridge connects the fabric of two very different landscapes within Austinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
downtown. The northern side is a well developed commercial, retail and residential mid to
high-rise buildings. The natural tendency was to connect the commercial and residential
within this side, each individual and combinations as the building moves across the water.
The interior spaces became more subdivided as the programs started to integrate and
transition to other programs.
The southern side was a park that ran the course of the river for a few miles along with larger
communal buildings and local retail. The landscape of the park was integrated throughout
the bridge, allowing for pedestrian traffic as well as social areas. The mass from the larger
programmatic elements are much further broken down, both for larger outside spaces
and smaller retail levels. The building stitches together so that each program has a strong
connection with the exterior fabric and the circulation systems.

0 25 50

plan @ 15â&#x20AC;&#x2122; above river

longitudinal section

100ft

plan @ 35â&#x20AC;&#x2122; above river

0 25 50

100ft

0 25 50

plan @ 50â&#x20AC;&#x2122; above river

100ft

0 25 50

plan @ 65â&#x20AC;&#x2122; above river

0

10

25

50

100ft

100ft

Bi-Polar
2011

GRADUATE MASTER THESIS:
EMERGENT HOUSE FOR THE
FUTURE
This project discusses two attitudes concerning
digital design, one about performance whose
skin is resolved parametrically, the exterior as a
rain water collecting instrument, that takes the
water into water vessels integrated into skin,
they also serve as heating and cooling devices
producing light and temperature affects. The
interior skin is more interested in sensation
with a smooth sensibility on a pleated skin
like silk and/or leather. The idea was to
emphasize this distinction to embrace the
discussion.
This project was done in conjunction with
a fabrication elective, which four students
helped research fabrication techniques, design
for construction and build the wall under my
direction.
http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/
2011/10/27/bi-polar/#more-16409
FABRICATION TEAM
Matthew Miller
Dale Fenton
Emau Vega
Adrian Cortez
Aubrie Damron
SOFTWARE UTILIZED
Rhino 4.0, Autodesk Maya, Lamina,
Mastercam, Pepakura

material: polycarbonite plastic
structural metabolism: holds the bladders in place allowing for
expansion and contraction
structural connections: fasteners for bladders, connections to the
exterior panels & contoured structure within the interior

material: polycarbonate plastic
structural metabolism: can add rigidity and resist horizontal
forces while also begining to engage the interior programs
structural connections: all contoured connections with high
strength glue for adjacent surfaces

Fun Palace
This project was an exploration is of the idea of fun and how to create this sensation. The goal
is create spaces that argue or conflict encouraging exciting new reactions and redefining the
typology. The use of a transportation tower that consists of an office tower, residential and
hotel is a good opportunity to have the services that these towers consist of to begin to interact.
Each tower represents the new and old of Moscow, the transition to from a communist country
and a capitalist one, along with the consumerist of Moscow International Business Center. The
amenities begin to blend together within the lobby 5 levels. The levels mix together creating a
new tension and excitement with traditional amenities of the very different typologies.
LOCATION
Moscow International Business Center, Moscow, Russia
PROGRAM
offices_capitalist
residential_communist
hotel/retail_consumerist

no â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;heimatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for you too late to refugee in your homeland
GSAPP fall 2012 (n)certainties

{francois roche + ezio blasetti, farzin lotfi-jam}

harvest is not the end/////
The fields of agriculture are used for interior and exterior consumption... the
land mass is filled with a strong biological system that supports a rich multitude
of species... it is one more biological particular system. As harvest cycle passes
multiple formal conditions are multiplied, folded... other new are happening...
..the biotype cycle is being corrupted by the association of inhabitants of the biotype... slavers of the uncertainty of this cycle.
auto-generative protocol/////
The corruption appears as a collaborative agent in order to redefine the DNA
of the area, helping harvest the agriculture. Introducing torture to the existing biotype, fear takes over and drives all biological systems through the
harvest. It uses the agriculture with the intention to create a structure for the
workers, a community based not only in humans but also on a high intensity of animal types. The loop of vegetation that can be harvested, as well
as those that have begun to decompose, cutting them, and accumulating
them in dry areas, always escaping from the fear... the sun & humidity.
escapism & nomadism/////
The workers that seek refuge from their existing world find themselves moving
towards the unknown. By escaping their environment they realize this new
environment it possesses fear and relaxation, a tension feed by the calm and
the aggressive simultaneously... humans feel para(arach)nophobia... spiders
cause a strange environment tormenting the inhabitants as the same time that
provide shelter... The inhabitants slip deeper into the abyss by the screening
action of spiders from stimuli... exterior and interior are no different any more.
As the sugarcane structure system begins to decompose, the spiders are
driven by their fear of the water, a schizophrenia of death, the dream of the
nomad, the nostalgic of a diffuse past... the inhabitants re-appear from their
decomposed canopies and follow the fresh shadows. A new harvest of sugarcane grows under, then through the decomposed structure re-emerges.
(loop)

positioning

havana

cienfuegos

boca grande

puerto padre

antilla
santa cruz del sur

ceiba hueca

[cuba]
The whole island of Cuba was once sheltered with forest... even
though great areas were cleared to make way for sugarcane, there
are still many opportunity (uncertain) areas. Sugarcane is Cubaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
most vital crop and largest export, being grown throughout the
island.

50,0 m

45,0 m

Furthermore, the island is a very specific place for spiders... an
authentic nomad agent that scape from the rules of the State...
spiders of different dimensions and several protocols of production.
Spiders that make webs, that make tunnels... traps for their preys.

II

40,0 m

35,0 m

IV

I

30,0 m

25,0 m

III
20,0 m

15,0 m

[sugar cane plantation]

10,0 m

5,0 m

0,0 m

I mygale lasiodora

II scytodes thoracica

III theraphosidae theraphosinae

IV amblypygid

substance experiment
[zip ties]
we used zip ties to simulate the ductile quality
of sugar canes

[reinforcement]
because the lack of rigid points the structure collapses. afterwards it will
reorganize itself, searching a form of stability

I

[sugar canes structure] zip ties behavior

The protocol of accumulation of sugar canes is quite similar as
the behavior of zip ties. Their design allow strong knots that with
precision can create a structure.
[slavers]
an army of spiders is the cause of the corrupted
biotype that we are working with

[membrane]
the several spider webs create a membrane without a
clear inside and outside like in Kleinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bottle

II

[production behavior] spiders

Spiders have demonstrated a complex behavior in different environments. We
have tried and studied after capture several of them in order to understand how they
produce their silk, at the same time that we experimented how the water is a need but
simultaneously a source of fear.
[shrinking & stretching]
a textile that can be expanded... and a textile
that can be compressed

The physical properties of the viscid and frame silks allow them
to function effectively as shock absorbers and structural elements,
respectively; and allow the orb-web to function as an aerial filter with
a minimum expenditure of material and energy.

computation analysis
REP 02

REP 02
REP 06
grw II

REP 02

REP 04

grw III
REP 01
grw I

grw
grw I

REP 03

grw II
REP 01

REP 01
grw III

grw V

grw IV

REP 04

REP 03

///REP = repulsor
///GRW = growth

REP 05
isolated growth

archipelago growth
I
[growth logic]
based on different arrangements of growth
points, different patterns emerge

continental growth

size of member change allowing for easier webbing on the
exterior and more efficient structural members in the interior

because of external agents, like wind currents and sun
incidence, some of the anchor points for spider growth become
more stable than others.

[accumulation]
it takes floating sugar canes
in order to construct a dry
structure for spiders

60,0 min

[collapse_reinforcement]
at the very begining the
structure falls down. after
that the basement becomes
more consistent

80,0 min

100,0 min

[scaping]
the
machine
continues
building and avoiling wet
areas/ water vapor

120,0 min

140,0 min

[joining]
the diffrerent structures
begin to join theirself

160,0 min

180,0 min

[densification]
iniciation of the general
density of the global
condition

200,0 min

220,0 min

240,0 min

///REP = repulsor
///GRW = growth
///TRJ = trajectory

[the slave]
the spiders are the slaves, the agent that starts combining the biotype with
hman life. they build scaping from the water... its phobia has started...

1.2 m

1.1 m

REP 06
1.0 m

REP 02

REP 03

0.9 m

0.8 m

0.7 m

0.6 m

0.5 m

0.4 m

0.3 m

0.2 m

0.1 m

0.0 m

180 days

120 days

55,0 m

MCH.15

60 days
sugarcane
plantation

MCH.01

50,0 m

MCH.11
60 days

MCH.16
MCH.07

45,0 m

MCH.06

MCH.17

120 days

MCH.10

MCH.05

sugarcane
plantation

40,0 m
MCH.23

60 days

MCH.19
35,0 m

120 days

MCH.21
MCH.03

MCH.22

180 days

30,0 m

MCH.09

MCH.14
60 days

60 days

MCH.12

25,0 m

240 days

MCH.08
120 days

MCH.04
120 days

MCH.02

180 days

20,0 m

180 days

sugarcane
plantation

240 days

MCH.13

120 days

15,0 m
60 days

MCH.20
10,0 m

MCH.18
5,0 m

[system of evolution]

0,0 m

the behavior of the structure in local terms, works according to a
series o steps that the machine is doing in order to help spiders to
build their web. this structure is going to be formed attending
mainly, to the level of humidity. in that way, the machine will scape
from wet areas . in other words, humidity is shaping the structure
the behavior of the structure in local terms, works according to a
series o steps that the machine is doing in order to help spiders to
build their web. this structure is going to be formed attending
mainly, to the level of humidity. in that way, the machine will scape
from wet areas . in other words, humidity is shaping the structure

growing

planting

decay

h

arvest/ agrouping

global evolution

recursing/ webing

saturation

local fragment

local fragment

PROFESSIONAL

Marcus-Aylward
Renovation
Spring 2008

The renovation of the Marcus-Aylward
residence consisted of finishing a basement,
adding a full kitchen and entertainment
room. This included the finishing the
ceiling, lighting design and installation, and
configuring new storage. Upon walking
down the stairs, there is a new railing detail,
which was both a hand rail as well as a visual
divider. The kitchen is feed right off the
stairway, where there is a built-in storage
wine storage and under the stair opposite
the counter shelving. In the entertainment
room there was a built in entertainment
center and new walls for defined storage that
were added. The project focused on different
techniques to give more space and allow light
into the dark, small basement. Both recessed
lighting and lamp lighting were used, along
with an increased cut away for the small
windows. The originally exposed HVAC
system was covered and finished similar to
the walls. All wall finishes were consistent
and differentiated themselves from the
ceiling.

The Legacy at Georgetown was a 80 unit assisted living facility, to serve the surrounding
community of Sun City in Georgetown. The project was broken into two separate wings one
facilitating memory care, the other as a general assisted living. The design was a simple figure
eight configuration allowing for maximum lighting into each unit as well as private gardens
for the residents.

INDIVIDUAL INVOLVEMENT
In this project I began working on revisions on all documentation, eventually taking over full
duty of coordinating all architectural drawings while facilitating with civil, mep and structural
drawings as well. In addition, I constructed a virtual model for rendering, walkthroughs and
animations.
LOCATION
Georgetown, Texas

La Riviera is the result of a digital
design-build course taught at
Texas A&M University by Gabriel
Esquivel during the spring of 2010.
the intention of this course was to
explore ground breaking modeling
techniques, emerging fabrication
processes and to utilize the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
large-scale design-build facility. My
own responsibility was the overall
schematic design, final design of the
ceiling and as a team we constructed,
finished & installed all of the design.

Before

After

Commissioned by local restaurant, La
Riviera was to renovate the entry space of
the restaurant, the scope included a new
bar, wall ornament and a ceiling installation.
Due to an extremely tight budget, the team
developed innovative processes to reduce
costs while achieving the desired atmosphere.
The project used multiple techniques of
construction, and materiality to create the
complex geometry. The ceiling serves as an
atmospheric installation blanketing the entire
entry space. The light source is masked by
layer of translucent forms, which diffuses
the light casting an even glow over the
entire space. The countertop served as one
large module that allowed for guests to have
drinks and display desserts. The ornament
on the countertop and walls carried a certain
sensability that encompassed the entire space.
The projects scope included a new bar, wall
ornaments and a ceiling installation. Due
to an extremely tight budget, the team
developed innovative processes to reduce
costs while achieving the desired atmosphere.
The project was completed in the fall of 2010.

Wall

ELEVATION Ornament CNC milled from 2 lb polyurethane foam

5

3

2

1

0

Bar

COUNTERTOP
3/4”x4’x8’ MDF panels laminated
to form countertop. Jouints
were split up to avoid having a
visible seam in the countertop to
maintain the fluidity of the piece.

35

34

33

32

31

30

29

28

27

26

25

24

23

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

PANELS
3/4”x4’x8’ MDF panels laminated
to form front panels. The panels
were attached to the cabinets
with 3/8” D x 6” hanger bolts.
The threads were attached
permenantly to the panels but were
bolted to the cabinets on site.

1

ORNAMENT
Resting on top of the countertop
and the panels the foam peice is
made out of 18 lb/ft foam essentially
giving it the same density of wood.

PLAN VIEW

LEFT ELEVATION

FRONT ELEVATION

Ceiling

1-0.5

1-1

1-2

1-3

1-4

1-5

1-6

1-7

2-1

2-3

2-2

Skeleton

Lamina Templates

4â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x8â&#x20AC;&#x2122; printed for guides, but from wire mesh

2-4, 2-5

Azimuth Wall
2011
Student leaders assisted in writing the initial
project proposal and budget, and presented
these items to the college for approval. Upon
approval, student leaders worked to produce a
series of prototypes, communicating directly
with Elena Manferdiniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team to solve design
and construction issues encountered. The
finalized design was then fabricated with the
help of several students participating in the
Artist in Residence program. The student
leaders were responsible for organizing
work schedules, material transport, setting
up files for CNC routing, quality control
and overall fabrication management.